IND vs SA Test: Sunil Gavaskar said India missed Ajinkya Rahane on day one of the first Test against South Africa at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. The visiting team was invited to bat first after losing the toss. The first day of the first test was not good for the visiting team i.e. India in batting. Apart from KL Rahul’s 70 runs, other batsmen could not convert their starts into big scores. They appeared to be struggling a lot in seam-friendly conditions.
Meanwhile, Sunil Gavaskar talked about Ajinkya Rahane’s 48 runs on a difficult track in Johannesburg during the India vs South Africa test tour in 2017-18.
Sunil Gavaskar said, “In the 2018 tour, Ajinkya Rahane played the 3rd Test and showed what the Indian team had missed. Rahane overseas has been such a fine player and maybe if he had been there yesterday the story could have been completely different”.
“Five years ago in the Johannesburg Test, the pitch was not easy and I was there. However, Ajinkya Rahane took advantage of the opportunity and showed what India missed in the ongoing game against South Africa,” he said.
“India did not lose the last Test match in South Africa by a large margin. Someone like Rahane could have been useful on this tour also. He has been a class outside India. Had he been there on the first day, the story would have been different for India,” he said.
Rahane was part of the playing XI in the World Test Championship final against Australia and scored 89 and 46. However, he was dropped from the team after two failures in the test against West Indies.
